by Michele Gillis, Staff Writer
There's a new name and a new owner at the real estate office in one of Jacksonville's premier developments.
Queen's Harbour Real Estate Company changed its name to Re/Max WaterMarke in January and the new owners are Tami and John Glover, who has bought out her previous partners.
Glover bought Queen's Harbour Real Estate Company in 2007 along with Bob Alligood, CEO of Ice House America and former CEO of Reynolds, Smith and Hills; and Doug Izard, a former IBM Global Services business consultant.
The company had a subsidiary, WaterMarke Realty Group, to market outside sales, and Glover and her husband, John, incorporated that name when they bought out their partners last year.
They added to the name: it's now Re/Max WaterMarke. Tami handles the broker duties and John is the business manager/recruiter.
"A few years ago, John and I were talking about how we could improve Queen's Harbour Real Estate Company," said Glover. "What could we do for the agents here and for our customers? John said maybe we should look into becoming a national franchise that would offer everything we need. We needed the tools, marketing, website and branding to get to the next level."
They were approached by several franchises, but decided to go with Re/Max.
"When we decided we were going with Re/Max, we needed to decide on a name," said Glover. "We had started the branding of WaterMarke Realty Group, so let's continue that course and get the traction we've already built on."
Though they are a full-service real estate company, they do acknowledge that a lot of their business still comes from Queen's Harbour.
"We have a great relationship with the community," said Glover. "If someone wants to come in Queen's Harbour to look around, the guards will send them to us. The relationships with the owners in Queen's Harbour are very strong. We want to continue to deepen those ties. Now they see us as having stronger reaches outside the community."
Glover lived in Queen's Harbour for 16 years. She worked at the Queen's Harbour Real Estate Company for most of that time, except for when she left to work for Re/Max for three years. When she returned she bought the company.
There are 950 homes in Queen's Harbour and about 30 lots left to build on.
Re/Max WaterMarke's renovations were complete in late February and they held a grand opening to celebrate.
In addition to changing the name, they changed the look of their offices to create a very techno savvy congregating area, business offices, property management office, conferences rooms and a synergy room for agents to work in.
"We wanted to make this open and inviting and very technologically savvy," said Glover. "All of our televisions are Apple televisions and we can walk in with our iPad and connect to the televisions and view properties with customers or have training sessions with our agents."
They also have leased a few offices to Bee Tree Homes, a custom home builder and another area of the office to house Inspirational Kitchens by Design's office and showroom.
"If you are a builder and you don't have a showroom, you can send your customers here," said Glover. "The showroom is for the builder or for the general customer. If you live in Queen's Harbour, or anywhere, and want to update your kitchen, you come here and pick out what you like and Bee Tree can do the upgrades and renovations if you want them to. We are trying to kind of marry the three different services under one roof."
Re/Max WaterMarke is already planning their second location, which will open in north Jacksonville Beach in the near future.